President Barack Obama called for measures to deal with 'the crime, the outrage, of sexual violence'. Photograph: Rex

President Barack Obama on Saturday used his last weekly address before his State of the Union speech, on Tuesday, to appeal for action over what he called “the crime, the outrage, of sexual violence”.

The president announced that he had created a “White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault” and said his administration would “keep working to stop sexual assaults wherever they occur”.

He added: “We’re going to keep combating sexual assault in our armed forces, because when a member of our military is attacked by the very people he or she trusts and serves with, that’s an injustice that no one who volunteers to protect our nation should ever endure.”

The National Defense Authorization Act, which passed Congress in December, contained a number of measures dealing with the increasingly public problem of sexual assault in the military. However, an effort to change the way the military hierarchy handles and prosecutes such cases, led by the Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, has struggled to attract enough support to succeed.

“Over the past five years,” Obama said, “we’ve stepped up our efforts to stop these crimes.” He added: “An estimated one in five women is sexually assaulted at college – and that’s totally unacceptable. We’re going to help schools do a better job of preventing and responding to sexual assault on their campuses.”

In conclusion, the president said: “I’m going to keep pushing for others to step up – across my administration, in Congress, in state capitals, college campuses and military bases all across our country.”

On Friday the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said Obama would “certainly aim high” in the State of the Union address. Carney also suggested the president would emphasise his willingness to act, on issues like unemployment, if Congress does not.

"The president has made clear that he wants to re-emphasise the capacity that he as president has," Carney said.

The Republican response to the State of the Union speech will be delivered by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, from Washington state, who is the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House. The move is widely seen as a GOP attempt to appeal to women voters, who have largely supported Democrats in recent presidential elections.